Rapper Young Thug Joins the Legions of Musicians Supporting Planned Parenthood
Young Thug announced on Twitter Thursday evening that the profits from his sold-out Terminal 5 show would be donated to Planned Parenthood.
The rapper Young Thug celebrated the release of his new album, Beautiful Thugger Girls, with a blowout performance at New York’s Terminal 5 Thursday evening, accompanied by a few surprise guests: the rappers Lil Yachty and Dae Dae, both labelmates, and Ugly God, a newly minted member of the XXL Freshmen class of 2017. To top it off, Thugger announced via Twitter—which was followed by a press release from his label, 300 Entertainment—that all profits would be donated to Planned Parenthood.
“I’m donating the proceeds from my show tonight to @PPFA,” he wrote. “I was a teenage parent. Planned+unplanned parenthood is beautiful.” Then, a snake emoji, and a heart.
Beautiful Thugger Girls, which he’s described as his “singing album,” debuted two weeks ago, but the Terminal 5 show marks his first performance since the release. Originally titled Easy Breezy Beautiful Thugger Girls, a sendup of the CoverGirl slogan, it seems to have been retitled after the cosmetics brand took issue with the violent visuals used to promote the record on Young Thug’s Instagram.
In spite of this controversy, Young Thug’s timing is spot-on: The proposed Senate healthcare bill, which Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell had been hoping to put to a vote this week, would defund Planned Parenthood. Though the vote has been delayed until after the July 4th recess, with critics in the GOP declaring it both doesn’t go far enough to repeal the Affordable Care Act and that it goes too far, this is a crucial period for healthcare—and women’s healthcare in particular.
And while this seems to be Young Thug’s first public foray into supporting Planned Parenthood, many artists have mobilized en masse in support of the healthcare and family planning organization in the months since Donald Trump was elected president. At a recent pop-up concert in Los Angeles, the band Haim donated a portion of the proceeds from their merch sales to Planned Parenthood; the musician Halsey was one of the speakers of note at Planned Parenthood’s recent 100th anniversary gala; and musicians like St. Vincent, Mitski, Björk, Chvrches, and Sleater-Kinney all contributed music to a vinyl collection of music and comedy benefiting the organization.
Miley Cyrus gets steamy for Planned Parenthood with artist Marilyn Minter:
